The Teacher’s Lifestyle

You can find your moment every day, something you look forward to, a ritual that becomes a lifestyle that keeps you feeling and looking; healthier, happy, refreshed and at ease. 

How many times have you looked forward to the holidays? How many times have your holidays seemed so short, making you begin to look forward to another one? The teacher-life is one crazy one, and many teachers live a monotonous life, full of work and less fun.

I have walked into school many times in the morning looking all neat and nice but by the time it’s school over, many things would have fallen out of place. We work with children on and on and it seems like there’s no breathing space, no time to do any thing for yourself. You get exhausted, feel worn out and look forward to the public holiday, the short breaks and the ultimate long one. It is not news that teachers come refreshed and full of smiles, very patient and hardly irritable after every holiday. Just give them two weeks and the holiday behaviour is gone; hair out of place, heavily pressed for the toilet, cold lunch, cold tea, more likely to be irritable, head buried in work all day, generally worn out.

You may say to yourself ‘I work round the clock, taking five minutes for a self-moment would not work!’ Think about it this way, giving up 5 minutes may be the ‘secret charger’ you need to go through the day as a happier and more fulfilled individual.

Every teacher deserves that sane moment right there in school every day and there will always be time for what you consider important to you. All you need to do is plan your day and make up your mind to establish five minutes a day doing something for yourself, something that calms you, satisfies you and refuels you.  Before we go deep into that, consider owning five minutes from one of the underlisted, depending on what works best for you on a daily basis.

1.  Just before the students arrive. This one is for the early birds, if you do not usually get to work on time, it’s not for you. I love this moment a lot because it gives me some sort of peace knowing I can have some peace and quiet in my work space, even if it is for fifteen minutes.

2.  On the way to assembly. Not all teachers are saddled with the task of taking children to assembly. It appears so simple but that is a ‘you-time’ for a teacher who may have so many subjects back-to-back. How you utilize that you-time can affect your day positively.

3.  When you are not teaching. Do not rush to mark that pile of books just after one long class, five minutes for yourself would not hurt.

4.  Your students are having an outdoor/out-of-class lesson with another teacher. Use this time wisely otherwise you would realise you did not do anything of value to yourself and even on-the-job at the end of that supposed free time.

5.  The official break-time. When you are not on duty, make good use of your break by taking a break. If the pupils need a break, you need it too.

6.  Between lessons. You can create a ‘you-time’ between lessons if possible. When we begin to look at ‘you-time’ ideas, you will see what fits in here. Trust me, some teachers get so tensed up during lessons and would need to consciously get very short breaks during their lessons.

7.  On your way to your out-of-class duty post. Don’t be the one who is always caught running to the duty post, make the process count a bit more for yourself, just be intentional.

8.  After school. Many teachers may find this easier to achieve, but it is better to strive for a personal time during the work hours, you need it to ease up your day.

Over the next few weeks I will be showing you several ways you can take a moment for yourself daily and be a happier teacher.

Kindly drop a comment if this post was useful.

How Do I Know What To Display in My Class?

Getting Appropriate Classroom Displays

It can be tough getting displays ready for the term. Inasmuch as you want to have a beautiful class, be sure that the displays you put up are meaningful and appropriate for the pupils in the class. To this end, you should encourage your students to look and learn from them so that the purpose of putting them up can be achieved. Look at the points below to guide you when thinking of displays.

1.   School’s basic requirement. Every school has basic requirements and you should be aware of them. If you are unsure, ask your supervisor.

2.   Subject based- What new things will pupils learn in your class this term? Are there going to be some difficult/tricky topics? Get displays for these topics to help children learn easier and have access to continuous learning/ reference.

3.   School theme for the term. It is important to set up displays with the school theme in mind, this will help you drive the message more easily in your classroom.

4.   Class goals – What do you want to achieve with your pupils? Convert your goals into displays so that your students are constantly reminded. Get relevant quotes, instruction charts, etc.

5.   What should your students know? There are many things you want your pupils to know by the end of the term, one sure way of getting that through is putting them up as display. E.g. word registers, writing skills, good manners, etc.

Classroom Display Ideas

·       Rules

·       Welcome back display

·       Word wall – new words, tricky words, key words for the term, etc

·       Birthday chart

·       Development chart

·       Progress chart

·       Alphabets

·       Numbers

·       Steps in writing essays

·       Manners/ good character

·       How to write a sentence chart

·       Basic fraction chart

·       Rights of a child

·       Science process skills

·       Students’ work

·       Capitalising letters

·       Goal wall

·       Months of the year

·       Days of the week

·       Weather chart

·       Relevant banners – captions for your display boards. E.g. writing, words, science, etc.

·       The colour wheel

·       Book wall – list of interesting books to read in the term

·       Math wall – shapes, addition, subtraction. Fraction, average, etc.

·       Parts of speech charts – adverb, adjectives, etc.

·       Science words/instruments to look out for in the term

·       Sight words

·       Place value

·       Sea animals

·       Mammals

·       Queer animals

·       Uncommon fruits/vegetables

·       Words/pictures (language teachers)

·       Reading wall display

·       Punctuation displays

·       Science – rock/minerals chart

·       Literacy - Sentence types chart

·       Art wall

·       Instruction charts – homework, silence zone, etc.

·       Motivational charts – quotes, inspiring words/photos, etc.

·       Facts chart

·       Borders

·       Synonym chart

New Session Palava! - Setting Up the Class

Putting Things Up!

Every class teacher knows that the beginning of a session is always a time to put things up in the classroom. It’s such a big deal because it creates your desired atmosphere for your classroom. Your students are looking forward to a beautifully decorated classroom, your supervisors will even give you their expectations and undoubtedly, your colleagues are also itchy to see what you are letting out of your sleeves.

What to put up?

While some teachers usually have a mental picture of how they want their classrooms to look like, others don’t. Some have a mental picture but do not even know how to bring it to life. Then ,confusion sets in for the first few hours, and when the ideas finally come, you are under pressure to finish up on time. (check for post on Classroom Display Ideas) by 7.00 GMT+1)

1.   Get a checklist. If you are like me, then you want to be sure you have all the basic requirements on check first. It differs from one school to the other (find out from your supervisor), when you have a checklist you tend to work smarter.

2.   Think about themes. You want to be sure you know what the school theme for the year is, this will give you ideas on important displays for your class.

3.   Your class goals. Every year, teachers start the session with a goal on what they would like to achieve with their pupils in class. To make some of these goals sustainable, you can build a display around it to help everyone stay focused.

Steps to set up the class

Getting a list of all your display items may seem like a great accomplishment, but that is only the beginning of your journey. You need to figure out how to get the displays done and then how to put them up nicely.

·       First things first. Decide which displays you want to create and the ones you would buy. Creative teachers prefer making a larger percent of theirs because they have wild ideas. It is okay to buy displays if you cannot create them, but the goal is to work towards learning to make yours because it is more economical to do so.

·       Ask for help. Identify colleagues who find it easy to set up their classrooms and ask them for ideas. This has worked for me many times. By the time you engage these people, you begin to get ideas that activate your own creativity.

·       Look for experts. You may not be great at designing your own displays or be able to get somethings done for yourself, it is okay to get someone who can help you. An expert could be your friend, spouse, a colleague, your child or a paid expert.

·       Get inspiration from colleagues. One easy way to get inspiration is to take a walk around your school, visit other classes and see what your colleagues are up to.

·       Go online. The internet has become a solution to many of the issues that teachers face. Teachers share tips and even show you how to get things done. You can get specific help by googling it, checking on YouTube, asking a question in you teacher communities, following creative teachers on Facebook, Instagram or just signing up on Pinterest.

Drop a comment if this was useful.